Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Book in excellent unread/unused condition. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> Thames not far from the site of the world famous flower show there is another magical garden. It has been there for over three hundred years and is now the calmest corner and the most valuable four acres of freehold in fashionable SW3. It has been the scene of some of the most important developments in the history of horticulture medicine and twentieth- century agriculture. This book tells its fascinating story. The Chelsea Physic Garden was founded in 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries to train their apprentices in identifying medicinal plants. In the eighteenth century it led the world in the introduction and classification of new plants and it has been a centre for many horticultural developments which we now take for granted: the first heated greenhouse was built here in 1680 and the earliest surviving rock garden dating from the 1770s can still be seen. The naming of the Madagascar Periwinkle now cultivated for essential drugs in mainstream cancer treatment occurred here and the garden played an important role in developing cotton and tea as commercial crops. Great figures from the horticultural world such as Philip Miller Robert Fortune John Lindley William Hales and ‘Crocus Bowles have all had close ties with this very special garden.